Mikheil Alexandres dze Vashakidze (Georgian: მიხეილ ვაშაკიძე; August 15, 1909 – November 27, 1956) was a Soviet astronomer, who worked in the Abastumani astrophysical observatory (Georgia) from 1936 to 1956. He and Victor Alekseyevich Dombrovsky (Виктор Алексеевич Домбровский) (September 30, 1913 – February 1, 1972) both discovered independently the polarized nature of radiation from the Crab Nebula in 1952 and 1953, which was caused by synchrotron radiation.
Vashakidze also created a new method for learning the distribution of the stars in space, which is now known as the Vashakidze - Oort method. He was awarded the "Order of Honour".
The crater Vashakidze on the Moon is named after him.[1]